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Cinema exhibition takes visitors back to their childhood

The 300-film collection is for all ages and showcases behind-the-scenes “treasures”

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14 September 2017 04:16 PM

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ACN | Barcelona

The exhibition ‘Cinema and emotion. A voyage into childhood’ urges us to ask ourselves a question, one we can all relate to. “Is it possible to go back to being a child?”

Held at CaixaForum in Girona, the biggest town in Northern Catalonia, the exhibition is a joint project with the French film archive organization Cinémathique Française. The experience features 300 films from all over the world and all throughout the years, including Catalan movie 2010 ‘Pa negre’ (‘Black Bread’). The videos are accompanied by various materials that take the viewer behind the scenes and into the creation of the films. This includes storyboards, drawings, photos of the set, posters, models, costumes, illustrated scripts, etc. The exhibition in Girona is its first stop of eight cities, also marking its first time in Spain.

Seven emotions

While it’s appropriate for all ages, the objective of ‘Cinema and Emotion’ is to revisit the history of film through a child’s eyes. Indeed, the first thing to greet visitors is a quote from director Tim Burton, known for his adult fairy tales, detailing “anybody with artistic ambitions is always trying to reconnect with the way they saw things as a child.”

To achieve this, the exhibition uses elements like interactive games and looped clips from different movies, all organized into one of seven emotions: joy, anger, laughter, tears, fear, courage and enthusiasm.

“Faces, body language, words – there’s everything. There’s a range of examples, between photographs and clips, so that the children, the parents, the relatives and the adults that come to the exhibition are shown how emotions are represented and expressed on the screen, and in real life too," said Assistant General Director of La Caixa foundation, Elisa Dúran

“Children, the parents, the relatives and the adults that come to the exhibition are shown how emotions are represented and expressed on the screen, and in real life too"

Elisa Dúran · Assistant General Director

“An illustrated book in motion”

"I wanted the exhibition to be an illustrated book in motion, with images grouped according to the theme," explained exhibition curator and director of the Cinémathique Educational Service Gabrielle Sébire. She continued by adding that “when children go to a museum they don’t know anything, but here, there’s a connection.” There is also a deliberate lack of text amongst the images, built as such to allow children to explore the exhibition freely and easily, and encouraging individual thinking.

Museum-goers will also notice that almost all films, excluding Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, star children in leading roles. Other films include ‘My Neighbour Totoro,’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘La lengua de las mariposas’ and the François Truffaut classic ‘400 Blows.’ For an extra look behind the scenes, visitors can enjoy Cinémathique’s “treasures” like archives from the 2007 francophone animation Persepolis.

A gift for Girona

The exhibition also ran in Paris and was well-received, with newspaper ‘Le Parisien’ calling it “unmissable, family-friendly,” and “intelligent.” The only difference between the Girona edition and the one in the French capital is, according to Sébire, the size of the screens. Indeed, its new home in Girona is not an accident, but a gift, specifically “as a recognition of its passion for cinema,” explained Elisa Dúran.

‘Cinema and emotion. A voyage into childhood’ runs is free and open until January 14, with the option of a guided for €3 on Saturday.